


rebirth

by superstringtheory



Category: Misfits (TV 2009)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Banter, Caretaking, Coughing, F/M, Fever, Hurt/Comfort, Nathan Young Being Nathan Young, Pining, Sick Character, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-27 23:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20415883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superstringtheory/pseuds/superstringtheory
Summary: Dying and coming back to life can't be that good for your immune system. For that matter, neither can living in a community center loft.Set post S2 ep 3, Nathan gets sick. Kelly notices.





	rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> This is half-assedly Britpicked. Just know that I spent a lot of time repeating the dialogue over in my head so to make sure the accents sounded right, so yes. I did that for you, dear reader.

_ "Some things you never get used to." _

\- Elvis Costello, "High Fidelity"

At first he thought it was just a fluke, like he ate something bad and had to get over it. That happens, more often than he’d like to admit, but that’s living in a community center for you. 

Then it happens again, the second time he’s reborn. It’s like his body isn’t sure what to do with food anymore, like it’s all a new concept. 

It gets better after a few days, he stops feeling nauseated after every mouthful and his stomach remembers its function as a human organ. 

Everything goes back to normal, or at least as normal as things have been since the storm. 

A few weeks go by- they don’t have much time left to keep doing community service, and Nathan isn’t really sure what he’s going to do with himself when it’s done. What’s he going to do, find a probation worker to kill on his own? Hardly. 

There’s a little tickle in his throat that’s getting annoying, but it’s not anything he can’t ignore. He’s been dead, after all. 

Then he starts to cough, and there’s a tightness in his chest, but he’s sure it’s just from power washing the outdoor spaces at the community center. It can’t be healthy to wear that face mask for so long. So what if no one else seems to be affected by it. After all he died,  _ again _ , and then Kelly said she just wants to be  _ mates _ and there’s fuck-all he can do about any of it. 

That’s not to mention all of the shit with his brother and watching him burn to death right in front of him. 

So sure, it’s not like anyone could expect him to feel like anything other than shit right about now. 

***

After community service finishes and everyone else goes home or wherever the fuck they go when they’re not here, Nathan raids the kitchen for some supplies. He finds a can of chicken noodle soup concentrate and follows the instructions to make it using water and a saucepan. It’s not all that good, but he’s not really hungry and most of it goes uneaten. 

Nathan’s tired earlier than usual, so he decides to head up to his bed in the loft and see if he can catch up on some sleep. Jesus never looked so worn out in all those stained glass windows and Renaissance paintings, but maybe that was just artistic license. 

He wakes up chilly in the middle of the night and has to go search around for an extra blanket. He doesn’t have much luck- the best he can find is a tarp that’s used for picnics or covering tables. It’s a new level of low: Nathan Young, immortal, living in a community center and sleeping under a tarp. 

At least the extra layer seems to help him get to sleep, but he wakes up in the morning unrested and achy. The spots where he was impaled-- because yes, now there are  _ spots _ , plural-- twinge, but when he lifts up his shirt to check, his skin is unmarked. There’s no evidence of anything that’s happened in the last few weeks. There’s no evidence that any injury has ever happened to him at all. 

He can’t remember what happens when he dies. He’s not sure if that’s proof of an absence or a presence of a god, any god, or an afterlife. He’d woken up in the coffin a few hours after being buried, and the time frame has gotten shorter since- after the impaling, he’d woken up with Kelly sitting over him just that same afternoon. 

It’s something like falling asleep, but there’s no dreaming. There’s no sense of time passing, or progression through states of being. He dies, and then he’s back, alive and well- _ ish _ . The first time he’d been so thrilled to not be dead that he hadn’t noticed much about his own body, other than feeling so hungry he thought his stomach might eat itself. 

Of course, then his stomach didn’t want any of it. So it goes. It got worse, then it got better. Nothing to write home about. 

There aren’t any scars. He wonders if he might be a virgin again, then discards that idea as preposterous-- Nathan Young, revirginized? Please. Though it may be worth telling some cute girl that she could take his virginity… 

Ugh. He supposes he should get up, get dressed for the day. His orange jumpsuit is still discolored with his blood from where he bled out last time, but it’s not worth trying to get the stain out. What if someone comes along and gets him with another pipe through the chest cavity? Unknown assailant with the pipe in the community center locker room. It’s a Clue envelope he’s already opened and he can’t exactly put it all back the same way. 

*** 

Everyone else gets to the community center at their usual times- by then, Nathan’s dressed and has made a lackadaisical attempt at eating some toast. 

“What’s up with you?” Curtis asks when he comes out of the locker room, and Nathan just shrugs. 

“Had a late night, myself.” He mimes masturbating, and Curtis rolls his eyes and pushes past him. 

“You’re disgusting,” Kelly says, overhearing, and Nathan just leers at her in response. So she wants to just be  _ mates _ \- this is what  _ mates _ talk about, isn’t it? 

“Your loss,” Nathan says, as breezily as he can, and then shivers. Even though he took a quick shower not too long ago, he can’t seem to stay warm. 

Their daily assignment involves going outside and scrubbing down the omnipresent graffiti from the community center walls, and Nathan slouches out after the others. It’s a little hard to get a full breath and his head is pounding, but he’ll make it through. What could be worse? Death? That’s a laugh. 

Before too long, though, he can’t seem to make his lungs behave for more than a few minutes at a time and he keeps having to stop to lean up against the building just so he can catch his breath. 

Nathan coughs, deep and throaty, and everyone else stops what they’re doing to look at him. 

“What is  _ wrong _ with you?” Curtis asks, and Nathan uses the opportunity to slant his body towards the support of the brick wall again. 

“Oh, this? It’s not all that bad, really.” 

“I think you should sit down,” Kelly says. 

“You look really pale,” Alisha notes, peering at him. 

“More than usual,” Simon adds. 

“Thanks,” Nathan says sardonically, hating how his voice comes out all raspy. “I think I just might have a sit down after all, if it’s all right with you lot.” 

He saunters over to the picnic benches and, instead of going back to their work, everyone else follows him like he’s the Pied Piper or something. 

“I think you have a fever,” Kelly says, her hand all up in his personal space. “Is that normal?” 

“What’s normal anymore?” Nathan laughs, and the sound is less humor, more sarcasm. It also catches in his throat and stays there, a tickle turned to a cough crept into a horrible, hacking sound that  _ hurts _ . 

So maybe he does feel like shit. And maybe this is outside the realm of normality. But he’s probably just sick. He’s never had good timing. 

*** 

Back in the community center, Nathan’s herded into the locker room, where Alisha fishes some paracetamol tablets out of her bag and Kelly hands him a plastic bottle of water. He winces upon swallowing and catches a little bit of his reflection in the mirror- Jesus, he really  _ does  _ look as bad as they all seem to think. His hair is as wild as ever, but he’s all pale and bruised-looking around the eyes and flushed high in the cheeks. His eyes look overly bright and a little glassy, and it’s about the last time he wants to be getting undressed in front of Kelly, but here he is. 

She stands there with her arms crossed over her chest-- and Nathan tries not to fixate on how that makes her tits look, all pushed up together-- and bosses him around. 

“Get your clothes on. I’m taking you home.” 

So that’s been decided- he’s too sick to stay here, alone under his tarp. Well, at least he might get a lie down in Kelly’s bed- if he can’t shag her in it, at least he can fall asleep smelling her sheets. 

Nathan refrains from saying anything crass about Kelly taking him home because he honestly can’t believe it’s finally, actually happening. And after that whole thing about being mates and all. Well, sure, she’s taking him home because he’s ill and apparently needs looking after, but it’s a start. 

Her flat is exactly as he remembered- it looks just like it did that time she had him over for dinner and fed him chicken nuggets. Kelly gestures to the couch and Nathan takes his shoes off before sitting down heavily. 

“You want some tea?” Kelly asks, and goes to her cupboard and starts pulling out a mug without waiting for a response. 

Nathan watches Kelly dunk a Tetley bag into some water and shove it into the microwave. She brings it to him with the bag still in and he looks up at her. 

“You call this tea? Are you sure you’re British?” 

“Oh, fucking drink it already.” Kelly sits down next to him on the couch all in a huff. 

Nathan listens to her- not because he necessarily wants some over-brewed bagged tea, but because in spite of everything, he still wants to make a good impression on her. Sure, he’ll still shag any old girl who comes around and is willing, but he only  _ wants _ her. Only thinks about her when he’s fighting the old one-eyed trouser snake. 

He takes a few swallows of tea-- it’s awful, but he keeps on drinking it anyway because it seems to relax Kelly a bit. She’s on edge, her fingers fluttering around in her lap and fussing with adjusting and readjusting her ponytail. 

“Do you need anything else?” she asks, and Nathan shrugs. 

“You got any cough syrup?” He could use a joint, too, but it’d probably only make the whole breathing situation worse at this point. 

“Don’t think so,” Kelly says. “Do you want me to get you some?” 

She looks so earnest and caring that something else altogether catches in his throat and Nathan has to pause. 

“Sure, yeah, whatever,” Nathan says. “Only if you want.” 

“You’re impossible,” Kelly tells him, but then she’s bustling around the flat getting him a blanket and draping it over his lap and putting a glass of water on the coffee table and gathering her purse. 

“Where are you going?” 

“To get your cough medicine,” Kelly says, like it’s obvious, and Nathan has to duck his head and avoid her gaze or he might say something he shouldn’t. 

She’s back in only about twenty minutes, but in that time, Nathan dozes off. He pulls the blanket up to his chin and curls up in the fetal position on his side. 

“Nathan?” Kelly’s hand is on his shoulder and he blinks up at her. “I brought your medicine.” She stands there watching him until he stirs and sits up, and then she hands him a plastic bag from the chemist’s. 

Nathan gets the medicine out and opens the bottle and takes a swig directly from it, which makes Kelly blanch, but whatever. He’s certainly done worse. 

“I have to go back to the center,” Kelly tells him. “Maybe go to sleep, yeah? I’ll be back later.” She pauses, considering, then says, “You can sleep in my bed if you like. Probably be more comfortable.” 

Nathan just nods, and then she’s gone. 

He waits a few minutes before moving to her bedroom- in case Kelly has to come back, he doesn’t want to seem like a perv who couldn’t wait to rub one out in her bed. Sure, he  _ is _ that perv, but he’s feeling so ill that it’s not even that appealing at the moment. He’d rather go to sleep in an actual bed for the first time in months. And not just any bed, but  _ Kelly’s bed _ . 

He shucks off his jeans and gets under the covers, shivering- if only his stupid body could decide what temperature it’d like to be, that’d be excellent. 

When he wakes up hours later, it’s because he’s burning up and all tangled in Kelly’s blankets. For a minute he can’t remember why he’s there--he has a wild idea that it’s because he and Kelly have shagged, and he’s upset that he can’t quite recall how it felt-- but then Kelly’s hand is on his shoulder and he comes awake more fully. 

“Hey,” Kelly says. She’s sitting next to him on the bed. 

“Hey yourself,” Nathan says, and it comes out as a painful croak. 

“You look horrible, by the way.” 

“Why thank you,” Nathan says, sitting up a little. “Here I am on my deathbed and a dose of your kind of cheer is exactly what’ll cure me.” 

Kelly huffs, an annoyed sound. “I didn’t mean it like that.” 

“Then how did you mean it?” Nathan raises an eyebrow at her, then something catches in the back of his throat and he has to cough for a bit. When he’s done, Kelly’s still looking at him, unimpressed. 

“I meant that you look ill. Like you should be going to the doctor.” 

“Sure.” Nathan waves a hand at her. “And tell them what? ‘Oh yes, I’ve recently become immortal, but I seem to have a touch of the sniffles’?” 

“Seems like more than the sniffles to me.” Kelly scoots over, her hip touching Nathan’s leg. Her hand rests on his forehead for a moment, testing. “You feel all warm and clammy.” 

Nathan rolls his eyes. “And?” 

Kelly doesn’t back down. “And I think you still have a fever. Is that normal? It should be getting better by now, yeah?” 

Nathan throws his hands up in the air. “Nothing’s ‘normal’ anymore, Kelly. I don’t know what the fuck is going on with my body. I was dead in the ground and now I’m back up here topside, and I don’t have any scars anymore. I think I might be a virgin again, too.” 

Oops. He didn’t mean to tell her that part. It just kind of… spilled out. 

“Hmm,” Kelly says, then puts her hands all over his face again. “You feel really warm, Nathan. I’m going to find the thermometer.” 

Well. That was a deft little non-response to his revelation. Nathan tries-- and fails-- not to read into the fact that Kelly immediately got up after he mentioned being a virgin again. 

“Put this under your tongue,” Kelly instructs when she gets back. 

“You’re bossy,” Nathan tells her, and she smacks him a little on the leg. 

“Just do it!” 

He does it. 

“Thirty-nine five,” Kelly reads off when it’s done. “That’s really high, Nathan!” 

“Oh, really? Well, that’s something.” 

Now Kelly’s biting her lip. “I don’t know what to do, Nathan. You’re really sick.” 

“Aw, darlin’,” Nathan drawls-- or tries to, his stupid lungs get in the way again and cockblock him by making him cough-- “I’ll be all right. Takes a lot more than this to get Nathan Young down.” 

Kelly, for her part, tactfully doesn’t reiterate that at the moment, Nathan Young is resting in bed of his own accord, running a fever of thirty-nine five, and barely able to construct an average-length sentence without stopping to hack up something from his lungs. 

“I guess it’s not like you can die, is it?” Kelly says. 

“If I do, I’ll just come back,” Nathan says. “I’ll try not to shit in your bed if I do.” 

Kelly smacks him again for that, but she seems a little less worried now. 

Nathan falls asleep again not too long after, and only wakes when he gets up to take a piss and Kelly’s next to him in the bed. 

She stirs when he gets back in, and just looks at him, eyes dark in the dim light. She looks younger without all of the heavy eyeliner. 

“Don’t make a thing out of it,” she tells him. “Just go back to sleep.” 

Somehow, he sleeps better with her there- sure, he still can’t breathe for shit and it feels like there’s toxic sludge working its way through his respiratory system, but there’s a certain comfort in lying next to someone all night rather than for just a quick shag. 

He gets up around four a.m. to swallow more cough medicine and paracetamol- his head feels clearer this time, less fogged with fever. 

Kelly blinks at him in the dark as he’s getting back under the blankets. Her hand snakes out to feel his neck and she hums. 

“You don’t feel as hot now,” she says sleepily. “That’s good. I was worried.” 

Nathan stops to consider this fact- it’s cute to think about, Kelly being all concerned over little old him and his cough. 

She falls asleep again before he can come up with something to say. 

***

In the morning, Kelly’s curled towards him sweetly, and Nathan enjoys watching her sleep- her hair splayed out on the pillow, the little flutter of her eyelids. 

She opens her eyes. “Were you watching me sleep?” She says it grumpily. Aww, maybe she’s not a morning person. 

“No,” he says guiltily. “Maybe. Yes.” He swallows, turns his head to the side to cough into the pillow, then turns back and says, “You just looked so beautiful.” 

Kelly glares at him, but her eyes soften when she sees that he’s not joking. 

“Don’t fuck with me,” she says. “I’ll know if you’re lying.” 

“Not lying,” Nathan says. “Just telling.” 

He walks his fingers up along her side to one of her breasts, and Kelly shivers. 

“See?” Nathan says. “I’m not the only one with chills.” 

“God, you are so  _ cheesy _ ,” Kelly tells him, but she doesn’t push his hand away. When he rolls over to get closer to her, she doesn’t move, and when his hands find their way under her shirt, she gets impatient and takes it off herself. 

Nathan sits up. “Kelly,” he says seriously. “Do you want to take my virginity?” 

She rolls her eyes. “Ugh. Okay. Fine. But you can’t tell any of the others.” 

“Won’t have to,” Nathan claims. “They’ll just know.” 

“Shut it,” Kelly says, straddling him. “Shut it before I change my mind.” 

Nathan shuts it. 

*** 

They shag twice more before Nathan moves back to the community center- Kelly wants him to stay with her longer because she says that his cough sounds horrible, but Nathan knows that he needs to split before he says something that makes her kick him out. At least this way it’ll be his own choice. 

And sure, it takes another few days before he feels completely back to himself again, but the fever stays broken and his throat stops hurting and eventually he’s just coughing intermittently but even that’s getting to be less and less. 

About a week later, they’re all hanging out outside the community center and Nathan catches Kelly’s eye from across the picnic table and she smiles at him. 

“Glad you’re feeling better,” she says. 

Alisha watches them carefully. “Did you two shag?” she wants to know. “When you were taking care of Nathan or whatever?” 

Nathan laughs, holding up his palms. “Don’t you think I would’ve told you if that’d happened?” 

Everyone seems satisfied by that, and when they’re all focused on something else, Kelly catches his eye and Nathan winks at her. 

Maybe this whole being mates thing isn’t so bad after all.

*****

**Author's Note:**

> They say to write the canon you want, so here I am. There is NO way Nathan did not get sick at some point during this time and absolutely no one can tell me otherwise. 
> 
> Special thanks to [painting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/painting/pseuds/painting) for getting me to watch this beautiful trainwreck of a show. 
> 
> Other special thanks to youtube for having DVD rips of this show available.


End file.
